Wanderlust

Author’s note: HOLY SHIT WHAT?!?! ANOTHER UPDATE? Yeah you heard right! See! I told you there was a lot of what was supposed to be chapter 9! I already had like, 85% of this written when I decided to split the chapters so you one person casually walking by gets to see the rest of it sooner than expected! So uh yeah! The moment we've all been waiting for! The consummation!!

Wow I blew it on the sex scene... OTL Enjoy anyway!

Chapter 10

Enoki spent the night tossing and turning in his hammock all the while dreaming brief snatches of mundane and frustrating dreams. He woke several times, hoping that his fight with Jyota had been one of them, but growling when he remembered that part had been very real and burrowing back into his pillow to make the churning in his gut cease. It seemed like mere moments of sleep before the hot, yellow light of dawn filtered into the barracks, the morning drums sounded and the soldiers leapt from bed to put their gear on for the day. Enoki’s effects would remain untouched, however, for the moment he swung his feet over the edge of his hammock, yawning and stretching, one of Jyota’s fellow Captains, a burly smug older Tauren, was already at his side and thrusting a pair of filthy trousers, a tunic, and a shovel at him with an amused smirk.

They glared at each other silently. Fury flared like an aura around the shaman, the Tauren officer struggled to keep his laughter at bay, and Enoki finally snatched the garments from him with a foul oath in Zandali. A bolt of lightning struck the ground as the howling Tauren escaped the wrath of the spurned grunt to attend to his own duties, and moments later Enoki emerged looking like a street urchin clutching the shovel like a weapon. Titters of laughter bubbled through the departing battalions, but the venomous emerald eyes quickly turned their heads back to their tasks and Enoki stomped his way to the stables.

The only direction he received from the master there was to make a pile atop the rest of the compost, and to have it done by nightfall when the animals would return. Then, he was left alone, watching longingly while the rest of the troops marched away from the barracks in perfect single file lines and a curious Kodo Beast left behind for the day craned over the fence to his pen and munched on his ponytail. The bright red hair was halfway down his gullet before Enoki even realized what had happened and nothing short of smacking the creature in the face with the broad side of his shovel would persuade it to set him free. Hair jutting and dripping behind him, temper already blazing, with shovel in hand, Enoki finally drew a deep breath, wrinkled his nose and began shoveling out the stables.

His day passed slowly in reeking tedium accompanied solely by the clingy kodo and a sickly wolf left behind to get over his stomach ailments. The manure pile towered to the baking sun with Enoki shoveling out each stable with a unique and increasingly creative swear for each. As it grew tall and formidable, so too did his foul mood, and it was mollified only when he cleaned out the stable where Zynn was tied and spent a few stolen moments stroking and cooing to his beloved mount. The fury toward punishment became bearable then with his companionship, but not even the smooth ruby scales and the loving clicks and whistles, however, could soothe his rage toward Jyota.

That day, after their explosion of anger and pent frustration, Jyota was nowhere to be found. He had not come after him the night before to try and smooth things over before they went to bed. The Captain had lacked the courage to face him that morning and dole out the punishment he had levied in person. There was no sign of him even returning from duty as the sun set and the stables were filled with fresh hay. He was not among the shadowy clusters of soldiers dotting the horizon returning from a day of long missions, and even after they had all arrived, nary a soul arrived to relieve him of his post. Jyota had vanished that day as if one of the Spirits he so devotedly worshipped.

With no one to give him permission to leave, as the Hunter had made certain to impress upon him was necessary, aggravation coiled tightly in his gut, winding his patience to the breaking point as he waited with fists clenched. He waited for what seemed like hours, until, quivering with wrath, Enoki could take no more. He hurled the shovel to the ground, ripped off the spare tunic, and vaulted onto Zynn’s saddle, digging his heels in and sending the raptor sprinting off as fast as his clawed feet could carry them to the nearest oasis.

The moment it came into view, sparkling in the ruby sunset and rippling in the balmy breeze, Enoki threw himself into the pool of sun warm, tranquil blue water straight from Zynn’s saddle with a noisy splash. Relief instantly washed over him with the fresh, clean water, and his body drifted down to the soft mud at the bottom, eyes closed and trailing bubbles from his mouth to the surface while the reptile watched curiously. His emerald eyes slowly opened in the blue depths and watched the serene dance of the reeds and tiny silvery schools of fish. The water seemed to stretch out for an infinity before him as it caressed and cradled his aching, filthy body in reply to his silent pleas.

A gentle current seemed to encircle the Shaman in the embrace of the pure, tranquil pool. It washed away the dirt and grime, cleansed his body and quenched the raging fires of fury deep within him. Enoki felt peace at last alone in the silence of the water, suspended in its ebbing fluidity and as one with it, and he stayed as long as the breath in his lungs would allow. When it ran out he rocketed to the surface and burst into the cool, dusky air with a cheerful gasp and an arc of wet, fiery red hair glistening in the dying light.

Enoki slicked back his soaked hair and shook it free with a faint smile finally on his lips. At last he unwound his fury, his tension and his anger as he scrubbed himself thoroughly free of the filth and stench of his punishment and left the oasis on Zynn’s back standing in the stirrups of the saddle to dry his crimson locks in the wind. He arrived back at camp on time to be first in line for dinner around the fires, and despite the fact Jyota had yet to show his face, he was calm as he seated himself on his usual log and greedily demolished his meal.

The long day was at last, mercifully over. He was in calmer, if not happier, spirits, full, and clean, and he tossed his tin dish atop the pile, ready to trudge to bed to get back to work in the morning. Yet the moment he stood and stretched his arms over his head, all it took to destroy the tranquility he had worked so hard to build was a soft voice from behind him.

“Sparky…?”

He whirled around toward the call of the nickname only one person used, heart racing, stomach bottoming out, and stunned emerald eyes meeting with sorrowful amber as he faced Jyota again.

“J-Jyota… Sir…” he stammered before he scowled angrily, ears flattening back against his skull and looking away with his arms crossed haughtily over his chest, “Look, I know yah said not tah eat until yah came tah tell me it was okay but screw dat mon! I ain’ gonna starve tah death jes cause you mad at me! I did yah damn punishment an’ I-“

“Sparky, shut up fah jes’ one second!” Jyota interrupted desperately, “Sheesh! I ain’ here tah punish you again, okay? I… I wanna talk. Alone. In my personal quarters.”

Immediately the Shaman snapped back, his jaw going slack and his arms dropping to his sides in sheer disbelief. Enoki had never once received an invitation to Jyota’s personal quarters, never seen the inside, never even seen which door of the officer’s building belonged to him. Jyota’s quarters had been an impenetrable fortress where he could keep himself as detached and aloof as he wanted, unseen by even those believing themselves closest to him. To be finally invited in was a new level of intimacy he scarcely hoped he could believe in.

“Y-You mean…?” Enoki breathed.

“Yeh…” Jyota remarked, bowed his head and strode soundlessly past him, arms crossed in the small of his back, “I goin’. You can come, or you can go tah bed. It up tah you.”

Leaving his simple offer hanging like fog in the atmosphere, Jyota walked away. Enoki stayed behind for a moment, stunned, but absolutely clear on which option he was going to choose. Getting his feet to follow what his mind was screaming at them to do was a somewhat more difficult task, but deep within himself he found the resolve to move and shuffled after the Hunter toward the Officers’ bunker.

Enoki caught him up just as he was rounding the circular structure to the back entrances, yet stayed a skittish few paces behind him to follow to the door lit by two flaming braziers on either side that he ultimately pushed open. With a solemn expression Jyota stepped aside and held the entrance for him, watching with frustratingly emotionless golden eyes as Enoki slipped inside.

The interior, although simple, was far more lavish than the cramped and impersonal barracks where he slept every night crammed into hammocks stacked two or three soldiers high. The small room held one proper wooden framed bed with a mattress, a cast iron fire pit where a pleasant conflagration crackled and snapped against the incoming cold Barrens night, and a desk which was littered with official documents, letters and scrolls with a tattered map of Azeroth pinned to the wall above it. A plush cushion lay on the floor beside the desk for Sharvari, but the panther was nowhere to be seen as Jyota quietly followed Enoki inside and shut the door behind him.

The Hunter at last turned his eyes to the Shaman and gestured toward the bed.

“You can sit if you-“

“Cut de crap Jyota,” Enoki promptly snapped, his tone deadly even, “Whatevah you wanna say tah me, say it. I don’ need none’a dis warm fuzzy comforting shit.”

Jyota’s expression softened in surprise, and a small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

“Shoulda known bettah,” he mused, “Okay, de direct approach it is. Look Sparky, I know I hurt yah feelin’s alright? But I been thinkin’ about what you said an’ I realize… I ain’ doin’ a very good job a’ keepin’ up bein’ yah captain an’ bein’… Wit’ you… At de same time.”

The air grew tenser between them as Enoki’s façade of anger crumbled swiftly away and morphed into the hurt he was truly feeling. His arms fell loosely at his sides, his ears stood upright, and his heart raced with a muted expression of the intense longing he had dared not voice.

“Damn right ‘bout dat,” he whispered painfully, gritting his sharp teeth and grinding his jaw.

“I know, I know. But it be hard yanno? I got rank here, I got rank in Orgrimmar, an’ I know yah don’ know how de military works really but I can’t be seen givin’ one soldier more attention den anoddah. It ain’ right. An’ even though we both know I wouldn’t treat you any different on de battlefield, someone might think I’d put yeh outta harm’s way, or protect yeh somehow like I wouldn’t protect anyone else. You get it?” Jyota asked.

“Kinda…” Enoki admitted spitefully, though no more comforted, “But whatcha point? Dat you still gotta treat me like a kid tah save face? Tah compensate fah sneakin’ off wit me?”

Jyota’s answer was his hands cupped adoringly over the Shaman’s cheeks and tilting his chin to gaze into his eyes.

“You ain’ nothin’ like a kid tah me, Enoki…” he breathed, unwavering golden irises boring intensely into baffled emeralds, “You anythin’ but a kid.”

Enoki blushed, breathless, frozen to the spot under Jyota’s memorizing stare.

“H-Huh? De hell you-“ he began, but Jyota’s lips against his sealed off any further objection.

Enoki’s eyes remained wide open as his prone body hit the wall with his wrists pinned to it beneath Jyota’s rough, calloused hands on either side of him. He snarled his protest and tossed his head to lock their tusks and forcibly butt him away, gasping for breath and red in the face.

“Wh-Wha… Jes’ what de hell you think you tryin’ tah pull here?!” he demanded as Jyota slunk smugly back.

He thumbed his flushed lips coyly with his dark lids heavy and seductive over his cat-like irises.

“Tryin’ tah prove to you I don’ think’a you as a kid, ain’ dat whatcha want?” he inquired smoothly.

Clueless, Enoki’s expression remained utterly unchanged.

“But…” the redhead insisted, “But aincha-“

“Ain’ I mad at you?” Jyota finished for him, reaching out to cup his face preciously in his hands again, “No… I was, but not no more. Sparky. I was jes’ freaked out, I lost my tempah an’ I said some things I didn’ mean. I want you here wit’ me… I wanna be closah to you. I want…”

Jyota’s voice grew softer, unfocused and dim as his lips brushed over Enoki’s again. His eyes slid shut. His hands glided down the Shaman’s powerful form where his arms encircled his waist steadfastly and finally, Enoki happily surrendered. His own arms lifted from the wall and draped over Jyota’s shoulders as his lids closed the curtain of blissful darkness over his eyes and their lips met in a slow, smoldering kiss ripe with gleaming embers of raw desire.

“I want… You,” Jyota moaned huskily against his lips.

Enoki could only muster the breath to reply with a small, demanding whisper of, “Jyota...”

His body ached for the touch long denied him, his fingers clutched at Jyota’s sinewy back, and his sex and soul burned for the quenching touch of his lover.

“About damn time…”

The Hunter’s hands were as swift and deadly as his lips as he kissed the smirk off of Enoki’s lips ravenously and finally indulged in the climactic release of his pent yearning that had only intensified the more he denied it. He grasped Enoki’s simple tunic from behind and ripped it from the lithe body which forced the lovers to part only for the moment Jyota needed to tear the coarse fabric over his head and throw it carelessly away. It flew across the room and hit the floor in a crumpled heap, followed soon after by the Hunter’s own harness and pauldrons clamoring at their nimble feet as they tore at each other’s clothing until nothing remained but their trousers. Enoki’s heels eventually hit the bed and he collapsed to the mattress with his arms still fiercely around Jyota’s neck to keep him close and his emerald eyes dark and hooded with unknown need.

For so long he had burned to touch every inch of his body, but every time Jyota would push him away. Up until that night he had rebuked every last one of his eager advances, quashed every attempt at seduction, and ignored every tease. Iron though he believed his will to be, even Jyota could not deny his own desires indefinitely. He greedily allowed Enoki’s hands to explore over his broad shoulders and map over his chest scarred from years of battle. Newly weapon-calloused fingertips brushed over the dark blue nubs of nipples gathered against the impressive musculature with growing hunger and Jyota slowly knelt on the bed around his hips to sink into that intoxicating touch he had long denied for himself. He too, gazed down at the feral form of the teal skinned Shaman with his red hair like ribbons of fire across his bed sheets and caressed over his shoulders and chest. Finally able to touch each other, finally able to just give in, to surrender to their desire, their bodies twined and ached for closeness.

It was like touching one another for the very first time. Gone was the guilty hindrance of their illicit intimacy monitored and truncated by duty. Vanished was the feeling that they could not ignore time, ignore the setting sun and the shadow of the barracks slowly creeping over their privacy and forget that Gor’rik demanded them back with punctuality. Finally their feelings, their passions and desires glowed so bright they could look into each other’s eyes and be blissfully blind to everything that had stopped them before. Finally, they were free.

Enoki’s impatient hands found Jyota’s belt, which was something they had never dared touch before, but he leaned up to steal his lips in another kiss with a grin and no more apprehension. He fumbled with the buckle blindly and every bar of metal and strap of leather distinctly not Jyota’s warm, blue skin he managed to wrench open with a pleasing clatter of metal. He pulled it slowly from around his waist and swiveled his arm over the side of the bed where he let it slither from between his fingers to the ground. Then, despite the smooth and flawless opening act to their first time together, he paused as primal instinct and basic knowledge came to an end. A hunch and a feeling bade his fingers hook into the waistband of the dusty, military leggings clinging to Jyota’s slender hips and thighs, but he gently urged him away.

Enoki offered no question and sat up on his elbows to watch as Jyota, in his stead, ceremoniously loosed his pants and guided them off of his hips. The redhead’s heart raced as ruddy leather unveiled perfect flesh, his cheeks flushed, and his body sang with tingling delight as finally, after all his dreams, fantasies and desires, he finally gazed upon the naked, raw form of his fiercely beautiful Hunter. His blue skin was riddled in scars that rippled and shone over his powerful musculature underneath honed by years of battle and experience. Angular masculinity shaped every chiseled facet of his sleek and lanky body from his broad shoulders to the extreme angle down to his narrow hips where a brilliant blaze of violet lay stark against his abdomen and wreathed his half erect and impressive manhood nestled between his legs.

Jyota’s body was perfect in every way he could imagine; powerful, ferocious and feral, endowed with both length and girth. Knowing Enoki had never had the privilege to truly view another man naked in an intimate way, he gave his virginal partner the time he yearned for to simply look upon his statuesque physique. The redhead’s hands still hovered skittishly for a moment before Jyota even as emerald eyes twinkled in their roaming of the toned musculature, but with a deep breath through his nose Enoki reached out to touch him. His toil roughened fingers ghosted over the erection standing proud before him and he gasped in shock at the soft, velveteen feeling of the veined skin not his own. Jyota’s expression shifted to mute enjoyment of Enoki’s hands on his member, something he had long fantasized and dreamed about, and his once regally strong body wilted in bliss atop him.

He cupped the Shaman’s face in his hands and carded his fingers into the wild fringe of hair along his jawline, kissing him deeper, slower, and thrusting his hips into the tightening fingers around his manhood. Enoki returned the kiss, but he allowed his experienced partner the control he wanted as he blindly stroked Jyota’s length and felt it quiver and throb in delight. The Hunter’s hands caressed down the younger male’s sides as he toyed with him and discovered the delights of his sinewy, masculine flesh. As he grew more and more comfortable touching him and being beneath him, nude and primal, Jyota finally felt confident in gently urging Enoki’s pants off of his hips.

The redhead gave a short gasp of surprise as his nethers were suddenly bared, but quickly calmed himself and spread his legs invitingly as he gave himself to Jyota with a smirk.

“I guess yah alreadeh know I nevah done dis before,” Enoki whispered.

Jyota flashed a handsome, comforting grin down toward his lover and leaned over him to reach into the corner of his bed frame where he had stashed a small vial of rich golden oil.

“’Course I do,” he replied as he uncorked it and generously lathered the sweet smelling contents over his palm, “An’ I honahed you’d give yahself tah me. Dis somethin’ precious, an’ I promise, I will worship you de way you deserve an’ make it a night yah won’ evah forget.”

Jyota’s lamp-like golden eyes hooded beneath his lids darkened with passion and he clasped his arousal in his oiled hand, stroking himself slowly and displaying himself to Enoki who only rolled his eyes with a scant smile and blushed.

“You gonna do me, or you jes’ gonna keep babblin’ about it, like yah always do wit everythin’?” he murmured amusedly.

He felt Jyota’s warm hands slide tenderly over his cheeks again and nuzzled into them with a needy, wanton smile.

“Oh wit’ de utmost’a pleasure! Tonight, I gonna make yah feel like yah de onleh man in de world, Sparky,” he breathed, leaning down and butting their foreheads together, “An’ from now on…”

Enoki could not have stopped the sudden racing of his heart even if he wanted to and he nuzzled his forehead into Jyota’s, bringing their lips mere inches from one another. It had felt like eons in coming, but finally, Jyota was his. He twined his arms slowly around his neck and pulled him bravely close, wanting him, needing him, not knowing what he was about to experience but trusting him completely. Enoki had never feared the unknown, he had craved it all of his life. In his sleepy village in Mulgore he had spent his days and nights looking at the horizon and dreaming of things he never thought could be. He simply had to reach out and take what he wanted, and that night, all he wanted was Jyota.

The Hunter’s sinewy body undulated against his, coming ever closer and treading cautiously. Enoki’s legs parted around his waist and urged Jyota to come to him. His lips sought the comfort of the older man’s, and his insistent embrace brought him so close he could feel the radiating heat of the erection brushing tantalizingly against his haunches. His body tingled with anticipation, for that sensation was starkly real and the moment he had been yearning for was right within his grasp. The breath in his lungs hastened, his own loins burned with desire and engulfed his being, their tusks locked together, and in one, smooth, utterly glorious movement Jyota thrust his hips and carefully urged just the head of his member past the quivering ring of muscle.

Enoki hissed in pain at the initial penetration and threw his head back into the pillows with his fingers digging into the hard muscles of Jyota’s back and his toes gripping the sheets viciously. It was the only indication of his discomfort he dared give, for he knew Jyota would stop if he thought he was hurting him and he was stubbornly insistent on completing the coupling ritual they had begun. The older Troll halted his progress anyway and showered Enoki’s lips and neck in slow, comforting kisses instead. In the back of his mind he cursed himself for getting too eager and failing to prepare Enoki’s body for his intrusion beforehand, but their love had been so long in coming all he wanted was to be buried to the base of his throbbing girth in the plush, wet heat of Enoki with his limbs twined around him and his name screamed in ecstasy from his lips.

“You okay?” Jyota panted softly before kissing Enoki’s mouth messily.

Enoki returned the kiss with a nod as he forced himself to relax, to endure the foreign pain and wait for the pleasure he was certain would come, and determined to claim for his own.

“I fine,” he breathed adamantly back against the seeking lips of his lover, “Don’ stop, don’ you dare stop…”

The kiss to affirm the Shaman’s desire was hard and bold with flared nostrils and racing heart, giddy on Jyota’s scent and his touch and bucking his hips down to beckon him deeper inside of him. Something deep at his core throbbed and pleaded for more and Jyota answered the silent cries of his body with a slow, loving thrust. The dull and aching pain intensified as he delved cautiously deeper and sweat began to bead on his furrowed brow, but gradually, as Jyota pulled carefully back and moved forward once more the pain began to crumble into blissful pleasure.

His body relaxed, accepted the thick hot girth deeper and deeper with its slowly rising cadence of passion, and fell into the omnipotent rhythm of Jyota’s lovemaking. Enoki succumbed to the sheer majesty of it, rocked at the mercy of Jyota’s powerful and skilled nethers and the solid, pounding column of masculinity seeking the sweet spot within. He melted to nothing but a greedy, wanton creature of desire in his arms feeling nothing but pleasure in every nerve and fiber of his body. His nails raked lines of rapture down Jyota’s back to bring him ever closer, his lanky teal body shone with sweat and wrapped hungrily around the sturdy blue flesh of the Hunter, and his moans rose in glorious crescendo along with his enjoyment.

Jyota too, found himself mewling and gasping Enoki’s name in utter rapture of the eager response to him, and the greedily clenching body swallowing the entirety of his aching, dripping sex. He had not fathomed the depths of his desire for the wild, untamed redhead until he had him in his bed at long last, acting with nothing less than what he had expected of such a primally visceral person; pure, unfettered hunger. Despite the fact that Enoki’s virginity had only just been claimed, his body knew in an instinctive way what it wanted, what it craved, and the pool of heavy precum spreading over his sleek abdomen and flanks from his own swollen member was more than proof he was enjoying what Jyota was bestowing upon him.

The sight of him like that, a smug, cocky, standoffish soldier at best, clawing, clenching, and silently begging him for more was nothing short of pure eroticism and made Jyota’s being soar with the intoxicating feeling of power and dominance. A grin spread over his lips with the temptation to tease, but that time, for their first time together, simple pleasure would suffice.

Together they both rode the waves of physical ecstasy that took Enoki to entirely new realms of feeling, both drenched in sweat, muscles rippling under shimmering skin and chests heaving with passion drunk breath. Tusks and lips locked when in their blind searching they met once again in the midst of their reckless ascent to the utmost height of pleasure. Jyota’s hips pumped with steady force in the tangle of their bodies, in complete control of his own as Enoki’s innocent body fell against his onslaught to the sweet spot at his core and rendered him at his mercy.

The swelling, leaking curve of the thick girth finally reaching his center made the Shaman’s vision explode in white points of light and his body, which had never known such a touch, reach the utmost in arousal with one devastating blow. Before he could even call his lover’s name the same beat sounded again within him and with all of the force that had swelled and coiled in his gut Enoki’s arousal lurched and released with white hot orgasm. Threads of his own scalding white essence spattered over his writhing teal body and he threw his head back into the pillows with a wildly euphoric scream and a weary satisfied grin.

The scream dissolved into tiny, accommodating mewls of enjoyment in his afterglow as Jyota hurriedly ground out the last of his pleasure into his quivering, spent body and released as well. Hot, wet seed filled him with torrential force and he echoed Jyota’s climactic vocalization in kind with the satisfying sensation of the thick, sticky fluid coating his abused body. Exhausted then, Enoki could only cling around Jyota’s neck, trembling slightly with the complete and total drainage of his essence.

His lover too, gasped for breath in the aftermath of their coitus, sweat trickling down his temples and violet Mohawk loose and wild with dampness. Slowly, carefully he pulled back and eased his flaccid member free of the quivering confines that had stroked out his orgasm so sweetly with a soft moan against Enoki’s lips. He hissed again at the feeling of being empty and the oddly pleasurable ache spreading through his body, as well as the hot rivulets of cum trickling over his haunches. His dark lashes parted and he opened his eyes only a crack, glittering green eyes alight with joy.

“Jyota,” he murmured, a slow, smug grin spreading over his face, “You been withholdin’ DAT all dis time? You jerk…”

Jyota snorted and laughed heartily, and let loose with a loud moan as he collapsed beside Enoki with an arm over his chest.

“Well it ain’ exactly easy tah sneak off an’ mess around in de military, as you may have noticed,” he retorted.

“Sure it is! I alreadeh getting’ ideas on how tah drag your ass off!” Enoki chirped with a naughty glint in his eye, even as he curled into Jyota’s arms with a wince.

Every muscle in his body suddenly felt overtaxed and sore and he groaned as he buried his face into the warm, sweaty chest of the Hunter.

“Not tomorrow though…”

Jyota chuckled and shook his head. It would probably be while before Enoki would feel up for sex again, but it hardly mattered. That night they had finally answered all of their enigmas. That night they had proclaimed to each other and silently to the universe that they were one, at least for that moment, and that there need be no more question, or worry, or doubt. There was no longer a need for propriety and shyness, they had crossed the final threshold and at last could fall asleep where they truly longed to be; in each other’s arms.

“No… Not tomorrow,” Jyota replied, his hands lazily massaging over Enoki’s damp buttocks, “But whenevah you want, Sparky. I yours.”

Sweet redness spread over Enoki’s cheeks. His eyelids grew heavy and his body settled into Jyota’s embrace in a gentle, relaxed curl where his muscles had no reason to protest.

“Mine,” he echoed as the numb darkness of sleep reached out to claim him.

The elder Troll nodded mutely and closed his eyes as well, planting one last kiss on Enoki’s lips.

“Yours. Sleep jes’ a little in here, den you get up, clean yahself up an’ sneak back intah yah own bunk for reverie, got it? I don’ want no trouble fah lettin’ you sleep in here, even Gor’rik would have my head,” he whispered.

A nod was the only response granted to him, but he took it for what it was and settled down into the bed with the covers tucked protectively around them both. Enoki was asleep and snoring softly with one arm draped crookedly across his waist before Jyota could even get himself comfortable and he laughed silently to himself. He had been wary to get close to the Shaman, but somehow, even against his better judgment Enoki had done a solid job of wedging his way stubbornly into his heart.

As he held him, asleep, looking mischievous and smug even in his slumber, Jyota felt happier than he had in quite some time. Though he knew all too well the grim reality of loving someone employed in such a dangerous and mercurial position as the military, Enoki made it all worthwhile. Every moment spent with the teen who lived every day like it would be his last refreshed the old Hunter’s battle weary philosophies and staunch military mind. Thinking of Enoki, his smile, his laugh, and his touch now that he knew what it truly felt like, Jyota followed him into the realm of dreams with the same crooked grin on his lips.

The next thing either of them knew, warm rays of morning sunlight were latticed over their still tangled bodies and the sound of the morning war drums was sounding through the entire encampment. Enoki slept blissfully unaware, though one nicked ear filled with simple rings flicked in annoyance, but Jyota, being the trained and loyal Captain that he was, sat bolt upright at the sound.

Normally he would have been awake since just before dawn and would have simply rose gracefully from bed, called Sharvari to his side and taken his armor from his rack to dress and get ready to run drills, but that morning a feeling of dread as heavy as the unfamiliar weight beside him took hold of the normally calm Hunter. Enoki had failed to return to his proper place in the barracks. His golden eyes went wide to see whom he still accidentally shared his bed with, his heart stopped in his chest, and once he had enough consciousness about him to realize what time it was he forcibly shoved his sleeping lover out of the bed.

“SHIT! Shit! Enoki get de hell up! We ovahslept! Yah have ANY idea what time it is?!” Jyota bellowed, leaping from bed himself and gathering up Enoki’s effects.

Enoki hit the ground and awoke rudely with a tangle of limbs and a string of oaths. He popped back up behind the bed and sprawled his arms messily across it, mussed crimson hair flopped over one eye and the other barely able to open with the mist of sleep still dulling it.

“Eh…?” he mumbled, looking around as if he had forgotten where he had fallen asleep, “Jyota? De hell you screamin’ ‘bout dis early in de mornin’?”

The violet and blue blur that was his frantic, naked partner swooped to his side and grabbed his arm viciously, hauling him to the door and flinging it open.

“I TOLD you tah go back tah de Barracks before reverie yah IDIOT! You gotta get outta here! Get back tah de Barracks an’ act like yah was nevah here!” Jyota barked, slamming a hand on Enoki’s chest as he shoved him.

“Whoa whoa whoa! Oy! Jyota wait what be dis big brouhaha about me stay-“ Enoki protested, but Jyota pushed even harder and he wound up toppling out the door and nearly falling on his backside.

The populace of the camp that had already managed to make it out of bed to wend their way to the breakfast mess fires suddenly found their sleepy morning routine interrupted by the sound of yelling and a very loud, very naked, very familiar red-haired Shaman skidding on his heels out of the officers’ residential area. He stopped and turned back toward the door, hardly caring that he was the object of a score of slack jawed stares and gleeful whispers, hands outstretched indignantly.

“Well can I at least get my-“ he snarled, cut off by the clothes he was about to request flying through the air and plastering against his face.

Enoki yelped and scrambled to free the old linen pants and tunic from his tusks. Jyota vanished into his quarters as he slammed the door shut and left his hapless lover at the mercy of the sea of eyes watching in both fascination and horror. Enoki turned over his shoulder as he freed his face from the musty fabric and froze in place to be suddenly in the spotlight with various soldiers paused in various states of serving breakfast, dressing, or eating.

Bright emerald eyes slid from side to side, surveying exactly how many people had seen the spectacle of a naked Troll tossed unceremoniously out of one of the officers’ personal chambers, but the rest of his body remained as still as a statue. Until of course, he remembered he was, in fact, undeniably still naked. He flushed and quickly covered his crotch with his rumpled ball of hodgepodge clothing, but he closed his eyes and lofted his chin with a haughty grin as he turned toward the barracks.

“Heh, you all wish yah spent de night in de Officahs’ Quartahs!” was all he proclaimed, throwing his head back with jovial laughter and swinging his hips as he retreated leisurely back to the barracks to dress in his armor once again.

The troops all watched him go, some in shock, some snickering and already spreading the news of Enoki’s initiation into manhood around, and still some others shaking their heads and ignoring the entire proceeding completely. It was, after all, just another day on patrol in The Barrens, and it was not unusual for Enoki’s latest fiasco to be the only entertainment for quite some time.